Pistons introduce Maurice Cheeks

Maurice Cheeks listens to a reporters question during a news conference at The Palace of Auburn Hills, Mich., where he was introduced as the Detroit Pistons new head coach, Thursday, June 13, 2013. Cheeks joins the Pistons after serving four years as an assistant coach with Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

AUBURN HILLS — As the Pistons introduced a new head coach at press conference for the fourth time in the last six years, recently hired Maurice Cheeks was asked if he had any reservations about taking a job with a franchise that has had so much coaching turnover as of late.

“If you thought like that nobody would be coaching,” said Cheeks, who is entering his third head coaching job. “Changes happen in the league every year. It happens every year. You can’t go in and take a job thinking about the negative part. You have to think about the positive part of coaching.

“The positive part of being here and being part of the Pistons organization right now is trying to change some of the young players’ mindset. No way, no how can you go in and a take a job thinking about things that happened before. It’s just not positive. I think the thing that what we have to do is build positively and think positively. A lot of young players, a lot of good young players and if we stay committed to what we want to do we’ll be okay.”

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Focusing on the positive seemed to be a theme for Cheeks and perhaps some positivity can be good for Pistons team that has missed the playoffs for four straight years and had it’s share of problems between players and coaches.

There has been speculation Pistons president of basketball operations Joe Dumars has to get this hire right or his time as general manager could be up.

Dumars and the Pistons organization certainly took their time in choosing a coach, with the search lasting nearly two months. Cheeks was brought in for multiple interviews and met with owner Tom Gores in Los Angeles.

“It was a very long process,” Dumars said. “The reason it was such a long process for us is because we are just committed to trying to get the coaching situation right. We wanted to make sure we took our time and went through as many possible scenarios as we could come across. It took some time, but we feel like we got the right guy for what we’re trying to do. We are committed to trying to get back. We are committed to trying to get our team to perform at the highest level. We felt after a long process that Maurice gave us the best chance of doing that.”

Cheeks comes to the Pistons after spending four seasons as an assistant coach in Oklahoma City. Prior to that Cheeks was the head coach in Portland (2001-05) and Philadelphia (2005-08).

Cheeks believes the experience in all three stops has helped prepare him to be successful in Detroit.

“The time I spent in Oklahoma was extremely helpful for myself. Being under coach (Scott) Brooks was extremely, extremely helpful for me,” Cheeks said. “I learned a lot of things, some of the things I didn’t do while I was a head coach, I learned to do a little bit better being under him. Some things I will instill that I learned over there and some of the things I did before becoming an assistant in Oklahoma I will keep. Putting some of the things from there and some of my own thoughts together I think will be a recipe for success.”

Some might say Cheeks was set up to fail in his last two head coaching jobs, inheriting teams on a downward slop. Cheeks didn’t make any excuses for why his first two head coaching stops didn’t work out and feels he’s a better coach because of those jobs.

“Everything you go through is a learning experience,” Cheeks said. “You gotta make your own way. Neither were negative experiences for me. You gotta make your own way and I’m here to make my own way, put my own stamp on this team and it has nothing to do with Philadelphia or Portland. It has nothing to do with that. I have to put my own stamp on this team. Make it the way I want to be. Make the players play unselfishly and be committed. I think that’s the way you win in this league, being unselfish and being committed to your team. You can win games that way.”

The young talent of the Pistons excites Cheeks. Players like Andre Drummond, Greg Monroe and Brandon Knight help make the Detroit job appealing.

“This team has a lot of young talent,” Cheeks said. “You go across the board and you have players that just have to be honed. I think as a I look across the team and I see young players, we have to put our stamp on them. Have them take some accountability for things that are done on the court. That’s the thing I look forward to, to put putting a stamp on the team and having them understand discipline and going out and playing night in and night out.

“Being able to do it on a nightly basis, I think people take that for granted, being able to be successful, playing hard, doing things right on a nightly basis, (people think) that it’s easy and it’s not easy. I think it comes from commitment, working through practice, working on doing things the right way. I think as this team and season go along you’ll see that and hopefully that will result in some wins.”

Dave Pemberton covers the Pistons for Digital First Media. Email him at dave.pemberton@oakpress.com and follow him on Twitter @drpemberton.